U.S. move offers bittersweet hope to struggling Syrian family

IRBID, Jordan – As he packed his family’s belongings into four large suitcases just hours before departing for a new life in Dallas, Texas, 30-year-old Syrian refugee Firas al Ahmad said he felt like he was being torn in two.

“I’m leaving because of my kids, for their future. I hope they can get a good education and have a better life than the one that I have lived,” Firas said. “The hardest part is that I am leaving my family behind, especially my father.”

Together with his wife Samira and their three children, the former car mechanic from rural Homs was staying at his father’s small apartment in the northern Jordanian city of Irbid before boarding a flight to the United States, where the young family is being resettled.